BottleRock Festival Day 2 on Saturday May 25 was jammed full of rock artists of all kinds, sports celebrities on the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage, and of course, some great food and drinks.
We kicked off our day by seeing the opener of the main stage, Linka Moja. This up and coming indie rock musician wore a long white button-up, casually owning the stage. She performed a handful of songs from her debut EP, Cough Drops. Linka Moja was discovered by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, so It was only fitting that she opened the day that Pearl Jam would headline.
On the Verizon stage Grace McKagan, daughter of Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan showed she was born with natural stage presence. The 26-year-old wore a long, sheer, blue dress covered with a white button-up and sang her heart out. As McKagan kept singing, the crowd grew, allured by her grungy garage rock sound.
South Carolina Chef Rodney Scott paired up with rapper T-Pain on the Culinary Stage to cook up some pig. T-Pain recently released his own line of chicken wing spices that Chef Scott incorporated into his recipe. Before cooking, T-Pain was asked what a song about his spices would sound like, to which he sang a funny tune: “Ring of fire, that booty hot.”
England native Holly Humberstone performed her set on the Verizon Stage at 2:15pm. Her style is a mix of country and pop, which she gracefully performed accompanied by her acoustic guitar. She sang a few songs off of her album and EP Paint My Bedroom Black and work in progress.
Rapper and singer T-Pain packed the Verizon Stage where he drew in a slew of fans, excited to see him perform some of his greatest hits. Despite his performance taking place early in the afternoon, he managed to turn the crowd into a lively pool of dancing and singing. We didn’t realize how many songs we actually knew by T-Pain until he started rapping to songs like “Buy U a Drank,” “Up Down (Do This All Day),” “Cyclone,” and “Booty Wurk.”
In the afternoon Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka took over the Williams Sonoma stage alongside Bianca Del Rio to bring one of the biggest highlights of the festival to the crowd. While David and Neil entertained the crowd with tips on how to “Napafy” party snacks, Bianca Del Rio transformed Chef Andrew Zimmern into a drag queen.
Kentucky based rock band My Morning Jacket put on a great show on the main stage. The group had a great stage presence, commanding the attention of the audience before belting out some fan favorites like “Gideon” and “Circuital.” After drummer Patrick Hallahan had a cameo appearance with Chef Aaron May on Day 1, it was nice to see him back in his element, rocking out with his bandmates.
One of the highlights of Day 2 was on the Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage where Chef José Andrés brought out NBA all-star Steph Curry and actor Bradley Cooper for a lot of goofing around, and some cooking in the background. Thousands of fans packed onto the lawn to catch a glimpse of their idols. Fans went wild for Steph Curry as he introduced his Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon to Chef Andrés.
Bradley Cooper came on stage with his new business partner Danny DiGiampietro from Philly’s famous cheesesteak spot Angelo’s. They brought a big box of foil-wrapped cheesesteaks which were then thrown into the crowd by the trio and excitedly captured in the air by guests. Bradley talked about opening a new cheesesteak restaurant with DiGiampietro called Danny and Coop’s in NYC after the success of their food truck.
After Bradley and Danny finished on stage they ran over to the Danny and Coop’s pop up in the festival and made cheesesteaks for the crowd for two hours.
Headliner Pearl Jam brought the party to the JaM Cellars Stage as thousands of fans gathered to hear their two hour set full of songs both old and new. Even with 30 plus years of performing under their belt, the quintet appeared young and full of energy. The band kept their setlist fresh by incorporating some old songs in with new songs, and even added their own touches like melding together their song “Daughter” with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).”
The group sang 16 songs and when fans begged for an encore, they sang another six songs.
During the encore, everyone was surprised when Bradley Cooper came out on stage and joined lead singer Eddie Vedder to sing “Maybe It’s Time” by Jason Isbell and a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
We were able to catch part of Kali Uchis’s feminine and dreamy performance on the Verizon Stage where fans chanted her name as a large curtain was pulled back to reveal the colorful and aesthetically pleasing background of her set. This was Uchis first major appearance since releasing her 2024 album Orquídeas, a Spanish-language story of love and heartbreak. Fans of the Latinx artist swarmed to the stage to sing along to some of her best songs. Many Hispanic natives of Napa Valley were thrilled to have some representation in their hometown.
Day 2 was another success and another festival day to add to the books. Stay tuned for our recap on the final day of BottleRock Festival for the 2024 season.
Words by Emily Cigan @emily.cigan and Amy Harris @thetraveladdictig